Advanced manufacturing techniques have been developed for allowing the control of various aspects of a mirror for display purposes. For example, prior art FIG. 1 illustrates a varifocal display system 100 including a deflecting mirror 102. As shown, a curvature of the deflecting mirror 102 is capable of deflecting between a convex and a concave orientation by way of vibration, etc. In use, a CRT or projector 104 projects one or more images onto the deflecting mirror 102, such that the image(s) is thereafter viewed by a viewer 106.
By controlling the curvature of the deflecting mirror 102 in such manner, a focus of an image may be varied as desired to show different depths, etc. For instance, by decomposing an image into elements at different depths and time-multiplexing the depth elements to be projected onto the deflecting mirror 102 at the appropriate moment for the instantaneous deflection of the mirror 102, the different elements may be presented at an optical distance consistent with an intended depth.
Prior art FIG. 2 illustrates a display system 200 including a steerable mirror 202. In use, the steerable mirror 202 is capable of being moved in two angular dimensions (e.g. with respect to an x-axis, a y-axis, etc.). By this design, light from an RGB projector 204, for example, may be reflected off of the steerable mirror 202 and directed to one or more pixels of a screen 206, in the manner shown. While not shown, it should be noted that the display system 200 may be equipped with one or more lenses situated between the RGB projector 204 and the mirror 202 and/or between the mirror 202 and the screen 206. By controlling the various dimensions of the steerable mirror 102 during use, a variety of applications are supported such as scanning, photonic switching, etc.
To date, there has been no feasible and/or effective attempt to combine the technological principles of the foregoing display system mirrors of FIGS. 1-2. There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.